Kings County Interact Club

2017

Interactors Sarah Hunt and Kristin Armstrong set up a table in the lobby at Sussex Regional High School during their lunch break on March, 2017 in hopes of recruiting new members for their Interact club! Success! Kings County Interact Club hopes to welcome 8 new members at their next regular meeting!

History was made in Sussex tonight, Jan. 16, 2017! 11 young people from our community were officially sworn in as Charter Members of the new Kings County Interact Club under the sponsorship of Sussex Rotary! A Charter Induction Ceremony took place at the All Seasons Restaurant with family, friends and Rotarians present to witness this special occasion! Thank you to all who contributed to a wonderful evening, Interact Advisor Lisa Brown wrote on Facebook!

Lisa added as a personal note “Proud to be a Rotarian and an Interact Club Advisor! What a wonderful evening celebrating the formation of the Kings County Interact Club!

Pictured above is Kings County Interact Club President Brianna Dunfield signing the Rotary District 7810 Govenor Ginny Joles’ banner.

On Dec. 30, 2016, Rotarian Lisa Brown wrote the following on Facebook: The Rotary Club of Sussex was first established in 1977 and 40 years later we are thrilled to announce that there is now a Rotary youth service group under our umbrella called the Kings County Interact Club and it will become official on January 16th! This is an event worth celebrating! If you would like to help us honor our young folks for their hard work in making this happen please join us! RSVP by January 9th .

Interact is a club for young people ages 14-18 who want to join together to tackle the issues in their community that they care most about. This club is open for students attending Sussex Middle School, Sussex Regional High School, Sussex Christian School and the Home School Community. If you are interested in joining call Lisa Brown 433-2273, Brianna Dunfield 434-3769 or Sophia Sharp 434-1936.

This article was reported in the Kings County Record Jan. 3, 2017 edition.

SUSSEX • A new program in the region organized by a group of teen leaders will see children ages zero to five get a new book each and every month for free.

The Interact Club is a youth club sponsored by the Sussex Rotary Club for teens 14 to 16. This is the first time this club has existed in Sussex and for their first mission they have opted to work on boosting literacy by growing home libraries.

“Our goal is to provide books to every child and encourage literacy before they get to kindergarten to give them the best start they can get,” said Sussex Regional High School student Brianna Dunfield. “A lot of children live in homes where they may not have books. Getting a book, or anything in the mail every month, will give each child that feeling of having something of their very own.”

The group has partnered up with Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library. The program promotes literacy and fosters a love of reading at an early age, by sending a free book every single month straight to the child’s door until they are ready to start school.

Books have been pre selected to be age appropriate for each child receiving them.

Rotary Club member Lisa Brown is acting as liaison for the club. As the owner of a local daycare, she said finding a way to assist children at a very young age was a no-brainer to her.

“When we looked around at all the literacy programs in the area, we found that there was lots of stuff for older kids and teens, but virtually nothing for children under five,” she said.“And those first years is when it counts. If they don’t learn to love books when they are small, they won’t when they get older.”

According to this year’s literacy results in the province, Anglophone School District-South’s number of students reading at the appropriate grade level fell well below the province’s 90 per cent target. Overall, 75.9 per cent of Grade 2 students in Anglophone School District-South met the appropriate reading level for 2016, down from 79.1 per cent in 2015 and 81.4 per cent in 2014.

Dunfield said there is hope that this program can play some small role in turning those numbers around.

“We are helping these children for school and for the future. And they are the future, so its about making our whole community better,” said Dun-field.

The Rotary Club itself will be sponsoring the first 25 children to sign up for the program. The Interact Club will be coming up with fundraising activities and pursuing local businesses to become sponsors.

It will cost $215 to provide every one child with a set of books up until their fifth birthday. In the alternative, Brown said some people are opting to give a donation of $42.60 which will be a year’s worth of books for one child.

The Interact Club plans to have its charter meeting Jan. 16, and is still looking for members to join and be a part of the charter group.

On March 17, they will be bagging groceries to raise money for the library program and on April 22, they will host a spring carnival at Lisa’s Playhouse.

The club will also take part in the Rotary Club’s major auction and dinner fundraiser May 4.

Brown said it is a huge benefit to the Rotary to have young people affiliated with it.

“They are bringing new life and new ideas to our club,” Brown said. “It will be great to watch them grow and get to know them and one day they wil hopefully decide to join the Rotary Club wherever they are.”

For more info on how to join the Interact Club, teens can contact Brown at 506-433-2273, Dunfield at 506-434-3769, or Sophia Sharp at 506-434-1936.

To sign a child up for the Imagination Library, contact Kristin Armstrong at 506-512-2409 or through email at imagination_library@outlook.com. The children must live in the Sussex area and the number of children chosen will be taken on a first come first serve basis based on how much funding can be acquired in this first year.

“If they don’t learn to love books when they are small, they won’t when they get older.” LISA BROWN

First Elections

First Board

At the Nov. 28 Interact Club meeting, elections took place for the Board of the Interact Club! Congratulations to the following students who will be serving as the governing body for 2016/17.

The Interact Club is now up to 13 members! New members are welcome! Please call Brianna 434-3769 or Sophia 434-1936 for more information about this exciting new youth community service club!

Second Meeting & Growing

Another great Interact meeting on Nov. 21, 2016- the second meeting of the group! Last week there were 8 students that came out and this week there were 12 ranging from Gr. 8 to Gr. 12.

Next week elections will be held for president, vice-president, treasurer and secretary. The group will also decide on a name for their club and then will look into getting some T-shirts designed. The meeting ended with a few team building/name game activities using the webbing. This was so fun! These kids are a credit to our community and we are so proud to have them under our Rotary umbrella!

The Interactors meet every Monday afternoon at 4pm at the Sussex Library. New members are welcome! Please call Lisa at 433-2273, Brianna at 434-3769 or Sophia at 434-1936 for more information

Rotary Club of Sussex

First Interact Meeting

Rotarian and students met on Nov. 14, 2016 afternoon to mark the very first Interact Club meeting in the history of Sussex Rotary! Below are the names of the enthusiastic students who came out to learn how they can serve our local and international communities!

What a great group of young people! There were some that could not make it for the first meeting but are hoping to come next week!

The meeting consisted of a few icebreaker games and then followed with discussions about possible service projects that the club could take under their belt. Rotary members Shelley Vail, Gregg Keith and Lisa Brown were in attendance to offer support. Next week’s meeting will take place again at the Sussex Regional Library from 4-5 pm. The focus will be learning about how to operate the club and understanding the roles that support it.

Interact is a club for young people ages 14-18 who want to join together to tackle the issues in their community that they care most about. This club is open for students attending Sussex Middle School, Sussex Regional High School, Sussex Christian School and the Home School Community. If you are interested in joining call Lisa Brown 433-2273, Brianna Dunfield 434-3769 or Sophia Sharp 434-1936.

Welcome to the Rotary Club of Sussex NB, Inc.

The Sussex Rotary Club is a diverse collection of civic-minded and professional community leaders who meet each week for fellowship, professional enrichment, and the opportunity for service. The Sussex Rotary Club provides an opportunity for business development networking with a variety of community business leaders and professionals. Rotarians help each other, and collectively help others.

Meetings

Sussex Rotarians meet weekly on Monday’s at 12:15pm throughout most of the calendar year. In July and August, we tend to meet in different locations throughout the community.